Functional words

BY: MINH HƯNG AND QUỐC HUY

What are functional words.

 Speaking simply, words in a sentence that don’t have a meaning, but without it the
sentence makes no sense.
 Example: Does he take a shower in the morning?
 Does can’t be translated into other languages, but without it the sentence makes no sense.
 Example 2: Paul and Peter went to school together.
 And *can* be translated and has a meaning, however without it Paul and Peter can’t be
distinguished and the sentence loses its meaning.
1. Pronouns

 Pronouns are words that replace nouns, phrases, or clauses.

 Two types of important and frequently seen pronouns: Personal pronouns and
Relative pronouns.
 Personal pronouns: forms can change as to which role it plays in a sentence: I -> me
(Subject -> object); we -> us (subject -> object)…
 Relative pronouns: introduce Relative clauses in a sentence; who, which, that, whom,
when, where, why, those…
 I like my car, which I bought three years ago.
 I like my girlfriend, who doesn’t exist.
 Interrogative pronouns: used in questions.
 Who, what, which, whom…
 Which car does he like? (different from relative which)
 Reflexive pronouns: if the object (sometimes) is the same as the subject
(sometimes)
 Himself, herself, myself, ourself(ves), themselves(ves)….
 He did that to himself.
 She can’t even remember herself.
 Intensive pronoun: same as above, but the function is to emphasize
 I myself created these slides.
 Reciprocal pronouns: Spider-Man pointing at each other, which means same-same
relationship.
 I and my non-existent girlfriend love each other very much. (There’s no one else between us)
 Demonstrative pronouns: Same same relative pronouns, but these are used to emphasize
who does what to whom.
 I have two cars. This car is red, that care is brown.
 Possessive pronouns: express ownership: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours…
 I have my own house. But mine is not for sale.
 Indefinite pronouns: we don’t know exactly, but we do know: all, both, many, one…
 All that I know is that I know nothing.
 Many have tried, none have succeeded.
Auxiliaries

 Very difficult to imagine, but without it English grammar can’t function.

 Auxiliaries help a main verb, in a special sentence.
 He bakes the pie. (No problem, normal sentence)
 He bake the pie? (Hmm, question, anything wrong with it?)
 DOES he bake the pie? (Do/Does are auxiliary verbs for the Present; Did for the Past; Will +
do for the Future)
 Participle can’t stand with the subject alone:
 I seen my dog. (Makes no sense) -> I HAVE seen my dog. (Now it makes sense)
 Have/has is the auxiliary verb for Perfect tenses, conjugate with the tense.
 S + have/has + V3 (Present) ; S + had + V3 (Past) ; S + will have + V3 (Future)
 Funny guy, Will, he always goes to tomorrow. Will is only for future tenses.
 So, make sure your special sentences have auxiliary, otherwise they won’t make sense.
 But, special sentences without auxiliaries will have meaning if you speak English well
enough.
Prepositions

 Remember what I said about functional words not having meaning? Forget it.
 Prepositions do have meaning, but they go further than that.
 English is annoying, but compared to other languages it’s the easiest. In German
prepositions change the meaning of the verb.
 So what are prepositions: they go along with nouns or pronouns to form a
phrase, which shows place, position, time or means.
 Simple prepositions: one word preposition: about, above, across, over, in, out…
 He does something at some time in some places.
 Simple, huh? No.
 Compound preposition: two or more words: according to, ahead of, as well as,
because of, by reason of, in addition to, in case of, in front of, in place of,…
 Meaning should be the same as above, and conjunctions.
 -ing prepositions: they use a verb as the base
 assuming, beginning, barring, concerning, considering, during, following,
including, involving, pending, regarding, succeeding, …

 Prepositions are very important, without them you won’t know the meaning of a
whole sentence.
 And they sometimes replace these guys.
Conjunctions:

 Connect words, phrases and clauses to show the order, or to create a relationship.
 As with English, they are easy, but hard to fully understand.
 And as always, I must stress, that it’s the easiest amongst Western languages.
Conjunctions change word order in German.
 Coordinating conjunctions: and, or, but, so, nor, for, yet.
 They connect same same things, but meaning might be different.
 Tom and I like to cook. (two people)
 He likes cooking Asian but I like cooking Western. (two different things)
 He cooks very well yet he is very messy. (one positive one negative)
 Correlative conjunctions:
 Same function as above, but these guys are couples, they always go with each other:
both …and; either … or; neither … nor; not only … but also …
 Both he and I like to cook. (two people)
 Not only does he cook but he also likes it. (Two positive things)
 Neither he nor I like to clean up. (two negative things)
 Subordinating conjunction: introduce dependent clauses
 They are clauses that don’t have meaning without the main clauses.
 cause, time, location, degree, manner,…
 Unless you take the car, I won’t go.
 I won’t go if you don’t take the car.
 If the dependent clause stands in front of the main clause, there’s usually a comma.
 RS
Definition: It identify the noun and always precede the noun (DET + N).
*Determiners consist of:

Possessive adjectives or Demonstrative

Articles possessive case of proper adjectives: this, that,
names these, those

Numbers: cardinal and

Indefinite words
ordinal numbers

NGUYỄN HUỲNH QUỐC HUY

 ARTICLES
a, an, the

Ex: A Bird; An apple; *Practice

The dog is near the tree. 1. He has the red car and a big house.
The chicken is in a house.
2. A chef working at the restaurant.

3. Olivi always has an apple at breakfast

 POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES OR
POSSESSIVE CASE OF PROPER NAMES
Ex: My phone; his boyfriend; Huy’s house
* In this section, just a possessive noun will be considered as DET
 *Practice
 1. My mom's car just has bought yesterday.


 2. I were borrowed Riley's video game.

 3. My lord, I'm born to serve you.

 DEMONSTRATIVE ADJECTIVESS:
THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE Ex:
+This car is mine.
When this, that, these, those stand in front of N , they
are Det +That one is his.
+These grass have to mow.
+Those guy so similar.
*Practice
1. This car is mine, that car is his.

2. “Those are pioneers of the women’s movement”, said one unnamed

source.

3. This chair should be in that room.

 Ex:
NUMBERS
+ two cup of tea
Cardinal and ordinal numberss + one bar of chocolate
+ My first house
As you see, numbers which modifier N they are Det
+ second day
*Practice
1. There are an hundred boat on the sea.

2. I bought my first house at 2020.

3. I'm finding four fish can at the third line can food.
 INDEFINITE WORDS
one, another, some, several, many, a lot of, a great deal of,
such, enough, much …

Ex:
+ I always remember her many acts of kindness to me.
+ We aren't enough food for tomorrow.
+ There is another way to solve this problem.
+ A lot of fruits and rice from volunteers for poor people. Just one bag of rice but they
very happy.